Aaditya Thackeray thanks CM Uddhav for relief to final year students; 'formula is simple'

Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday thanked Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for offering relief to the final year university students in the state. Taking to Twitter, Aaditya Thackeray mentioned the relief and said that the "formula is simple"-- either the universities will pass the batches on aggregate marks or those students who feel that they are at a disadvantage because of the aggregate marks, they can appear for the examination voluntarily. The schedule for the examination will be announced later. 

Aditya Thackeray also thanked Minister of Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant and Minister of State Prajakt Prasadrao Tanpure for their efforts. Along with it, he also thanked the Vice Chancellors for supporting and participating in the decision. This decision comes after the Chief Minister spoke to the officials on May 30 and directed them to find out ways to end uncertainty over holding examinations for the delayed academic session. 

Meanwhile, in April, the Maharashtra government had declared that the second-semester exams of Class 9 and Class 11 state board students shall not take place. State Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had explained that the first semester marks would be taken into account for promoting the students. 

Read: Maharashtra: CM Thackeray asks varsities to find ways to prioritise education, hold exams

'Mission Begin Again' 

Following the Centre's lockdown extension in containment zones, Maharashtra has issued lockdown guidelines for the new lockdown-- 'Mission Begin Again' valid till June 30 in three different phases. In addition to the Centre's guidelines for reopening in phases, Maharashtra has imposed phase-wise reopening of activities in areas of MCGM (Mumbai), Municipal Corporations of Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati, and Nagpur. In the rest of the state, all activities are allowed except for the ones mentioned in the prohibited list. 

Read: Raj Thackeray writes to Maharashtra Guv, seeks scrapping of final year university exams

COVID-19 in Maharashtra 

On Sunday, May 31, Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally surged to 67,655 with 2,487 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus. There are 36,031 active cases in the state at present. The number of recovered cases in Maharashtra rose to 29,329 after 1248 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the day. Out of the total 89 deaths- 52 from Mumbai, 9 each from Pune and Navi Mumbai, 6 from Malegoan, 5 from Thane, 4 from Kalyan-Dombivali, two from Solapur and one each from Osmanabad and Yavatmal were reported on Sunday, propelling the state's death toll to 2286.

Further, 56 of the aforesaid deceased persons had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc. The recovery and fatality rate pertaining to COVID-19 in the state stands at 45.35% and 3.37% respectively. A total of 4,62,176 samples have been tested in various laboratories so far.

As compared to the national average of 2,722 tests per lakh population, Maharashtra has conducted 3,585 tests per lakh population. There are 3,157 active containment zones in Maharashtra. While 5,58,100 individuals are under home quarantine, 34,480 others have been sent to institutional quarantine centers.

Read: Kerala comes to Maharashtra's aid; 100 doctors & nurses head to join state's Covid fight

Read: Maharashtra: Aaditya Thackeray assures university students over method of evaluation, more